the day I got my first puppy

I was like 8, I think and was handed this little puppy in a box

my first comments: what a cute puppy, I wish I had one like that

and I got told it was mine and i'm like awwww yay!

(even though it did take me a while to realise it wasn't a joke, the puppy was indeed mine!)

Originally Posted by starrysky

I have this memory of me and my older brother, both small children, eating our way through snow in the backyard. Whoever got to the back of the yard first, won. chomp chomp.

I love this! I almost wrote about me and my dog in the snow last night.

I used to live in a place that produced snowstorms that paralyzed the town. My job was to take the trash out. I had to put on my snowsuit and swim on top of the snow to take it.

I put my little dog in his sweater and dug out paths and caves for him to play in. He was a real sport about playing in the snow.

I loved that little dog. I moved a lot when I was a kid; this dog was often my only friend.

my first white christmas

remember going sledging and losing all control over the sledge, and fell out in to the snow so many times.

but each time I fell, i'd just get back up and back on the sledge

it was cold, but it was fun

owning a toy bus

the idea was, you gave it voice commands.. start the engine, and the engine would start- honk the horn, it would honk the horn

gaga, and waaaaa, didn't seem to do anything- but that's what I used to tell it.

gaga, waaaaa, and the bus would just sit their

still makes me laugh

Driving down a valley road, the back of my little truck full of my boyfriend’s furniture, I thought about how I had never felt so happy. I had never been so happy to be alive.

I was moving him out of his apartment and into my house while he was at work. The love of my life.

Late nights at the toxicology lab. I was a lab tech, and after 8 pm, I had the whole lab to myself, as I set up the next day's experiments. I was 23, and unlike my high school years, I was confident, well-liked, and bold.

My friends and I were afraid of this big kid in our neighborhood when we were in third and fourth grade. He was in my grade, and usually I was the biggest kid in my class, but he was bigger. I still remember his first and last name.

Anyway, he was always saying mean things to us, and we had seen him hit other kids. And now he was coming up on us and he had friends with him.

I was sick of his s***, and I picked up a bunch of snow, warmed it up to make it a hard snowball, and when he got close enough, I just hauled back and threw this snowball as hard as I could, and hit him right in the face!

I then thought, oh no, he’s gonna kill us now!

He stopped and started yelling, “You hit me!!” But he didn’t come after us. He just froze. His friends were staring at him, not knowing what to do.

We ran back to my house, shut the door, and started laughing!

You know what? He quit picking on us after that!

J, whom I met at university. He was in all my English classes. He was 71, and auditing the classes, but he was a sharp one. I befriended him and his wife, and helped them move into a beautiful apartment overlooking the cityscape. They both knew Japanese, and owned a small house in Japan. They had raised their son there. The last I heard from them, they were taking a small trailer and traveling the north American continent. True adventurists. I miss them.

Memory: senior year in college. Christmas time. Living at home. Sitting with someone special on my couch in the living room. Staring into the colored lights on the tree. A peaceful feeling.

Some guy I dated a long time ago, and loved, and had my heart broken by, messaged me on OkCupid this past summer when I was on it. I don't know what he was expecting, but I didn't respond. He seemed to take this to heart, and messaged me again, some pitiful "poor me I'm saving face" message. I didn't respond to that either. It felt good.

I went shopping for Japanese maple trees last spring. My daughter was busy studying, so I went alone. I didn’t really like the ones at the big box hardware stores and went to a local nursery. I asked the nice man in charge of trees for help, and he led me to the most exquisite tree I have ever seen. Floating Cloud. I was in love. The leaves were white, green, and—pink! I bought two.

Once in a while, my mom would take me to the park near the St. Louis zoo. There was a big pond there, or maybe it was a small lake, and she would rent a paddle boat. We would paddle around on nice, sunny days.

It was beautiful park, and we had peaceful afternoons there.

Originally Posted by key tones

I went shopping for Japanese maple trees last spring. My daughter was busy studying, so I went alone. I didn’t really like the ones at the big box hardware stores and went to a local nursery. I asked the nice man in charge of trees for help, and he led me to the most exquisite tree I have ever seen. Floating Cloud. I was in love. The leaves were white, green, and—pink! I bought two.

Wow! Pretty!

My daughter toddling out Christmas morning (we had put up the Christmas tree the night before), and upon seeing the tree and all the presents, she said, “It’s my birthday! Happy birthday!”

We took my daughter to Ed Debevick’s, where they insult you for laughs while you dine in this 50s diner. Once in a while, the music kicks on and the people working there sing and dance, some of them jumping up onto the counters!

My daughter (she was three) jumped to her feet on the booth seat and danced along with them. So cute.

Originally Posted by key tones

We took my daughter to Ed Debevick’s, where they insult you for laughs while you dine in this 50s diner. Once in a while, the music kicks on and the people working there sing and dance, some of them jumping up onto the counters!

My daughter (she was three) jumped to her feet on the booth seat and danced along with them. So cute.

Ha! Cute. I don't think I would like Ed Debevicks, LOL.

Even though I'm female, I was the Turkey Boy in my high school's rendition of A Christmas Carol. Lol. That was such a fun time.

I can’t remember how he found me (this was a few years before Facebook), someone in my French class in high school now lives in my city (we are half-way across the US). He contacted me to tell me a friend of mine was looking for me, and put us in touch!

She used to say that someday we would reform our band and make it big! Well, that didn’t happen, but we wrote a lot of emails

[Scooterbug74]

Sitting on the beach with my wife in Jacksonville Fl...watching the moon rise over the ocean.

We had four (yes four!) cats when my daughter was born. The cat we thought would be likely to like the baby turned out to be the one who loved her the most.

We never knew why Dusty was so anxious. He was the one that picked me st the Humane Society. He looked like a Russian Blue.

Anyway, my daughter wasn’t rough, but she was a curious baby. She poked his face and his eyes. She pulled his ears, his fur, and his tail. He just patiently sat through it all. We couldn’t believe it. He always stayed with her. When she was able to walk, she would haphazardly pick him up and carry him around. It looked uncomfortable, but he wouldn’t struggle or complain.

Dusty, he was a great cat.

[Pasha]

I was in France on a train from Toulouse to Albi. As I watched the countryside drift on by I did not have a care in the world. For a brief moment the moodiness started to come back but then it was gone. I had no reason to be depressed. Then it came to me that maybe this is how life should always be.

[size19needles]

Sometime around last Christmas. It was subzero F outside and couldn't decide if it wanted to snow or not. My best friend and I went to see a movie, and afterwards just drove to a near-abandoned parking lot across from the theater, parked, turned on a radio station playing Christmas carols and just peacefully sat together in silence, listening to the music. It was the moment I realized our friendship didn't need words, just time together, and that we understood each other. One of the few peaceful moments I got in 2016.

My dad was very sensitive to sounds and smells. But that meant that things like the smell of a fresh-cut Christmas tree would cause him mild ecstasy. I remember him cutting a thin disk of wood off the end of the trunk before putting it up, just so he could have it with him for the rest of the season. He'd put it up to his nose, inhale, and make a noise of satisfaction that, had you not known the context, would have made you uncomfortable.

Being on my step-grandfather’s boat when I was a child. The water was so beautiful, and he was always so nice to me. He showed me how to fish.

I remember wearing my sailboat swimming suit on the boat (which wasn’t a sailboat, but I didn’t know any better), which made me really proud that I had the right gear for the occasion.

[Pasha]

I once went to see saxophonist Rene McLean. Along with his quartet he had an African storyteller, guitarist and percussionist. The storyteller began to tell a tale. The guitarist and percussionist created a melody from the story. Then Rene and his quartet kicked in. They went into this long weaving Blues jam. Then it hit me. In this one piece they showed how a simple melody from an African folk tale evolved into Jazz and Blues. During the intermission I went to the pianist and told him that the piece was amazing. He smiled and said "That it was".